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Sorry if this is too late, didn't check back here! But, I can't add much.

I was on a supported tour when I rode there, so I was pretty blind to services. There was a gas station/c-store at the intersection of 60 & 73. There was a rest stop at the bottom of Salt River Canyon, right at the river, but it was closed for construction when I was there (APril) and I never noticed if there was water available there.

Apart from that, there was not much out there that I can remember - but as I said, I completely was not looking, as we had a support vehicle.

Anyone ridden this? There is no way we can make it in a day. We are on tour now--in NM--and working our way west. Looking for options other than the ACA route through Safford, etc. For the 60 rt., what are camping and water options? I understand that the Payson-- Phoenix run is crazy w/traffic. Any help would be great!

Thanks.

Scott

I rode that in the other direction (Globe - Show Low) this April. 8700' climbing & 6000' descending - would not call that "mostly downhill".

Are you coming from Silver City? If so - we went thru ALpine/ Eagar/Pinetop (hwy 160) -- and you go right past a ski area and spend a bunch of time at 7-8000' elevation, so watch the weather. We had snow last April there.

If you are super hard core and ready to do huge climbing, the ride between Morenci and Alpine is fantastic, but climbs about 9000' in 90 miles with no services. There *might* be water at one of the *possibly closed* campgrounds or the lodge near Blue Mesa, and there *might* be water at fire station somewhere in the middle. And the road might be closed too, if it snows.

Otherwise, heading north on 180 to Reserve would be a less intense option.

This time of year, I might go the Safford way to stay low if the forecast is iffy, but the other way, while much much harder, is also much nicer. Very limited services, though.

Nothing you can pull will keep you any safer from bears dogs and rain than a tent. If a bear wants your food, it will get your food. Dogs aren't a problem at night. Tents are waterproof if you get a half-decent one.

But, while you are riding, you will be miserable with the extra weight. Sure you can pull 60 pounds of trailer but don't you need all that other stuff too - like a sleeping bag, cooking gear, clothes, toiletries, etc? SO, then it's what, 100 pounds? More? Remember, it has to be durable enough to take miles and miles of rough road.

And then what, it's like, at least 6 feet long, where are you going to park it? What if you have to take a car ride, or take it upstairs in a hotel? Can you carry it up stairs? Fit it in an elevator? take it on a train or plane?

OK, and then, you are building it yourself, right? How does it attach to your bike? How does it affect your bike's handling? Is it safe to tow down hill, or does it want to come around and pass you , remember it weighs 60-100 pounds, does it need it's own brakes? How willl you know these things without finding out the hard way?

When it's parked, is it on it's wheels and then with braces in front/back? Does it have to be parked on a level surface? how do you get in/out of it, and is that door water proof? bug proof? Does it collect condensation overnight and then retain that moisture all day? Is it broiling hot at night? Does it need a window? Is your other stuff packed inside it during the day and then you get to put it where at night?

What problem are you trying to solve, and what new problems do you introduce.

No don't worry about it. The only ones that are crowded are Lake Louise and Banff. At Lake Louise they get a lot of cycle tour traffic, and when the campground starts to fill up, they start asking bike campers if they are willing to share. Last time I was the we had 5 people - me & my tour partner + 3 random other folks - in one site, and that worked just fine. In Bannf... man, I can't remember exactly how it worked out, but we did end up camping even though we were initially told it was full.

If any campground is full it's usually possible to ride in and find someone in a van or motor home who is willing to share their tent pad - offer to split the fee, of course! The rangers will generally try to help you out, as long as you are polite and ask, rather than demand, help.

And the Seeley-Swan valley (hwy 83) is nicer than either shore of Flathead Lake. If you have to be on Flathead, I'd be on the west side. Or, at least, get more recent info, I was on the east side in 2003 and the traffic was terrifying, on the west side in 2008 and there was traffic but plenty of shoulder.

San Francisco to Santa Barbara or LA. Easy route finding, good airports (Southwest & Frontier have reasonable bike carrying rates), great weather, great scenery, plentiful inexpensive camping, no long distances between services, tailwind, lots of other riders, season is May-October.

You should be able to come up with a decent way to connect. How exactly you choose to do that would depend on how much you care about Glacier National Park and how much you like riding mountains vs. plains. Personally I wouldn't be too quick to assume you have to go back to the NT.

I like mountains. I would head down to Mt Rushmore (not sure where, haven't ridden the NT), head up to Devils Tower WY, connect through Sheridan or Buffalo over the Big Horns, go to Cody, head through Yellowstone, then you can connect to Great Parks NOrth, NT, TransAm or Lewis and Clark to head to the coast - or even better, keep going north and ride the Icefields Parkway, then head over across British Columbia.

Since North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming all have a lot of new resource extraction traffic, I think you should try to find some local knowledge about what roads are good to make the connection off the NT. Sorry I can't help with that specifically.

Cedar City is near ST George, I know you can get shuttles to Las Vegas from there.Carson City is near Reno.Reno and Vegas both are served by Southwest Airlines, which has a reasonable bike-handling fee.

There may be other factors at play here beyond the knees that make you want to break the trip up, but IMO doing that adds a huge amount of time and expense for travel, that might be otherwise spent touring. You might even do a cost analysis to see if a hotel-based trip would break even, and maybe spare the knees the pain of pushing camping gear up hill? Or maybe you could just do 4-days on, 2 days off? I don't know the rest of your constraints, of course.

The bus is so horrible and time consuming. It might not even be all that cheap. Greyhound's web site should show you the bus service info, better than asking here. Don't count on finding a bike box at the station, even if they say they have them.